The Garden District

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Saturday we did a walking tour of the Garden District. When New Orleans was settled, the French settled in (you guessed it) the French Quarter. When the US purchased Louisiana through the Louisiana purchase (a whole lot of history here) Americans from the east coast decided to move to Louisiana for cheap land and new opportunities. The Americans had money and were educated so the French were afraid they would take over their businesses. There was a lot of animosity so the Americans settled in the Garden District - thus all the big, beautiful homes. I had previously printed the walking tour from the Frommer's website. It was excellent and saved us $40 and we did our own private tour. We did more walking than planned because the St. Charles streetcar was not running in the morning due to a marathon.

We saw many huge homes in various architectural styles including some owned by celebrities (Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Anne Rice). As we were looking at Anne Rice's house, a neighbor came by and told us she has since moved to San Diego, but the house was the setting for her book "The Witching Hour" (neat hey Lesley?) We ended the tour at the Lafayette Cemetery - the city of the dead, where all the tombs are above ground and numerous family members can be in one tomb. The City owns the land and the families own the tombs so the cemetery is in a state of disrepair with markers broken and falling off. A great place to make a spooky movie and there have been some shot there. We did get the streetcar going back to Canal St and from there walked again through the French Quarter and stopped at Bubba Gumps for refreshments and snacks. Very good. Then back to the hotel for a rest before going to Oceana (again) for dinner (crab cakes) . We've decided we have seen enough of Bourbon St. so walked down Royal to get to the restaurant.

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